Blessings, I’m Giselle Bailey. My HBO documentary Seen & Heard comes out September 9. It’s about Black creativity shaping culture, and the importance of us telling our own stories and doing it together. I’ve directed projects for @HBO, @Netflix, and @Hulu, working with @OprahWinfrey, @SwizzBeatz, @IssaRae, and underground icons from New York to Lagos. I move between different formats—documentary, branded, video art, and now fiction—but what ties it all together for me is the belief that creativity is a form of liberation. I learned that from my family. My family has roots in the Rastafari movement, and I grew up between the Caribbean, the UK, and the US. All that taught me: not belonging has its own power, and outsiders are often the ones who spark the biggest cultural change. Right now, I’m building Indigo Films with my brother Stephen (@akabradford), focused on Jamaican stories and the audacity of the diaspora. I’m also starting Crisis Club (@crisisclub.world), a space for artists to learn from the rebellious creatives before us and to build together, even while the world feels like it’s falling apart. For me, it’s always been bigger than making films. My hope is to help create movements of artful unruliness—to join voices, to collaborate, and to shape the future.

I think more than passion, I love what I do. Writing was my first love, and it gave me an authentic voice at a time when I felt like I’d lost my own. When I was moving across countries, my accent kept shifting, and I felt like my voice no longer carried my history. But through writing, art, and film, I found ways to express what didn’t always translate out loud. At heart, I’m an introvert, and film became a way for me to build and find community. I’ve never been one for small talk, but making something with people has always felt honest, exciting, and alive. I see a lot of beauty in that rawness. For me, beauty is an expression of authenticity. I’m drawn to the kind of beauty that breaks what’s expected, which is also what I find in documentary. I’m usually inside the stories I tell. In almost everything I’ve made, I’ve been going through something similar to what the film was about. That’s part of why I’m passionate about filmmaking. It’s become a way of life. It fuels my curiosity. It keeps me learning about myself and about the world.

If I can answer the question of how long I’ve been a storyteller by saying how long I’ve been a daydreamer, then I’ve been telling stories my whole life. I was always caught between remembering where I’d been or imagining where I wanted to go. Even when I was reading, listening to music, or hearing a friend’s gossip, I was seeing visuals. And so, I decided I needed to learn the tools to release those images from my mind into the world. My determination took me to art school. It felt like my teenage self was making an oath my adult self couldn’t take back. There, I became obsessed with African mythology and spiritual systems, underground scenes, nightlife, anything that let me imagine something different than the “cleansed” life we’re often made to live. When I left, I worked across branding, commercials, and post-production, learning animation, visual effects, and design. All of that gave me tools, but I wanted to be intentional about how I used them. That led me to documentary: first with Viceland (@Vice) when the channel launched, and then creating films with collaborators. I believe storytelling is our most ancient art form. It’s what builds culture, society, and even religion. In that sense, I think we’re all storytellers; it’s just a matter of finding the right tool that lets you tell your own.

My favorite thing is finding harmony in an image. I feel it in my body when something’s off—when the picture isn’t hitting, when the vibration is wrong. What excites me is finding language in the unspoken, and letting that part of the film speak louder than words.

I've curated with @TraceeEllisross, @TheRealSwizzz, @IssaRae I want to curate with @BadGalRiri, @WalesBonner, @SafiyaSinclair 📸